FEW MEMORIALS OF THE GREEKS TO BE FOUND IN CORNWALL.

prepared their tin. Strabo says that he accomplished his promise; but if so, the book is lost, and its valuable contents for ever hidden from the world. It is plain however, from his proposing to undertake such a work, that historical materials must have then been in existence, and have been placed within his reach; and if So, the Greeks must have been acquainted with the situation of the Cassiterides long before his days. It therefore appears from these combined circumstances, that the accounts transmitted to us respecting the time when the Greeks first visited our islands, are conflicting and various, and consequently that the fact itself is involved in much uncertainty. From this uncertainty arises another, as to the period of their continuance. For even though the time of their final departure could be ascertained with much precision, yet while that of their arrival remains undecided, the whole period of their trading to our shores must be involved in much uncertainty.

But how long soever the Greeks continued to visit these parts, it does not appear that they have left many monuments behind them. This circumstance may be considered as arguing strongly against their having established colonies on our shores. Of their places of residence we have no memorials visible in any surviving vestiges, from Hartland Point to the Start; from which we may gather, that if any settlements were formed, the habitations of the settlers were of a transitory nature, and formed of materials too feeble and perishable to bear the shocks of time, and the accidents of hostile elements. Those on the southern coasts near Mount's Bay, and in the Scilly Islands, if any such ever existed, we may easily conceive to have been swept away by the same inundations which probably annihilated those of the Phenicians. But on those promontories to which they have given names, and which appear to have sustained little or no injury from the encroachments of the sea, we might naturally expect to discover some memorials, if any had ever existed. None however can be found; and hence the conclusion is evident, that they must have been of a temporary kind, if they existed, or that no buildings in these permanent parts were ever erected by them.

It has been before noticed, that the Druids of Britain, although they committed none of their mysteries to writing, were not ignorant of the art; that in their ordinary affairs they used the Greek letters; and that these letters were imported from a colony which the Greeks at a very early period had established at Marseilles. In these letters we perceive the influence and ascendancy of the Greeks; and if of the ordinary writings of the Druids had been transmitted to us, we might have discovered in the medium of communication, a striking monument of these celebrated traders. But since nothing of this sort has been permitted to reach us,

any

PREVAILING INFLUENCE OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD.

we can only perceive the shadow of this monument cast upon us by a kind of accidental reflection.

If we look back to the preceding section, we cannot but discover that for several names of places in Cornwall, and for the termination of many more, we stand indebted to the Greek language. These words, and terminations of words thus applied, Dr. Borlase thinks are nearly all the monuments of Greece which this county can boast." It does not appear that they left many monuments behind them, if any at all; unless the number of Greek words interspersed in the British language may be considered as such, and to have proceeded from this commerce." That the commercial intercourse of the Greeks with Cornwall occasioned the terininations which the names of many of our places still occasionally bear, seems to be too plain to admit of much doubt. But as the Greeks traded to this country almost exclusively for tin, their intercourse can hardly be supposed to extend beyond the confines of Devonshire and Cornwall. Dr. Borlase therefore seems to argue justly, when he contends that those Greek words with which the British language was impregnated, must be imputed to some other cause.

The Gauls, he says, used the Greek letters in Cesar's time, who found their rolls of soldiers, together with a vast number of women and children, written in the Greek characters. And it is well known, that the conquests of Alexander were accompanied with a diffusive knowledge of the Greek language some centuries before Christ. By Alexander and his captains it was spread through Egypt and the East; and by the colonies of the Peloponnesians and their academies, to which the polite world resorted, it was carried into the West, as an indispensable accomplishment among the more exalted orders of society. Hence it became the universal fashion of the polite world for several centuries before Christ, not only to be acquainted with the language, but also to write in Greek.

From these circumstances it has been inferred, that our British ancestors did not derive all those Greek words with which their language was impregnated, from the Grecian traders exclusively, but rather in a considerable degree from the intercourse which subsisted between the Druids of Britain and of Gaul, whose records, whenever they were committed to writing, were always preserved in Greek characters. In addition to this, it has been thought, that the Greeks themselves, though proud of their language, borrowed many words from the Gallo-Grecians, a Celtic nation, with whom they were well acquainted. This therefore, if it can be admitted, will easily account for the introduction of a still greater similitude. Besides all this, the resemblance between many of the Greek words to those of the Phenicians, will plainly teach us how they might naturally augment their

THE ONLY GREEK VESTIGES NOW IN BRITAIN ARE IN MANY WORDS OF OUR LANGUAGE.

stock, independently of those trading Greeks, who without all doubt contributed more than any other cause, to give diffusion and perpetuity to their words.

As for any other remains of the Greeks who once visited our shores, besides those which the names of our places still continue to supply, very few if any are to be found. Tin was the article which they sought, discovered, and purchased; and Cornwall and the Scilly Islands were the places to which they resorted. But in these places no memorials of any monuments, known to be Grecian, can be said to exist. We have neither coins nor inscriptions among us; nor does it appear with certainty, that any satisfactory evidence can be adduced, to prove that they ever actually made any settlements upon our coasts; unless, like the habitations of the Phenicians, we suppose all their remains to have been swept away by the encroaching waves, and even this appears rather doubtful.

Their only business to these islands was trade; and not being at variance with the natives, and dreading no invasion, they erected no fortifications, and formed no encampments. No battles were fought; and no monumental stones, either with or without inscriptions, were erected, to denote either victory or defeat. And perhaps as they were no more than transient visitors, they built no temples, and established no particular mode of worship; and from these things they might have been led to abstain, as the Phenicians had already established a profitable monopoly, and left no room for an adventurous rival in the articles of superstition.

V

CHAP. VII.

Cornwall visited, invaded, subdued, and abandoned by the Romans.

SECTION I.

Cornwall first known to the Romans, and visited by them.

IT does not require much acquaintance with history, to know that Rome and Carthage were the deadly enemies of each other; that the overthrow of the one was considered as necessary to the safety of its rival; and that this enmity involved them in successive wars, which finally terminated in the ruin of Carthage. The first of these wars, which are in general denominated Punic, began about 264 years before Christ, at which time the Romans were totally ignorant of all naval tactics. But as they were to contend with a nation renowned for the adventurous spirit of its inhabitants upon the ocean, they found it necessary to turn their attention to maritime affairs. The second Punic war began about 218 years before Christ; at which time the Romans had made themselves so well acquainted with ship-building, with the management of vessels, and with the general principles of navigation, as to become formidable, even in the eyes of the Carthaginians. It is not before this period that we can suppose them capable of visiting distant shores, much less of making an expedition into Britain.

No sooner had their wars with the Carthaginians made the Romans acquainted with maritime affairs, than they endeavoured to turn their skill to their national advantage, by uniting the wealth of commerce with the glory of their arms. Long before this time they had marked with secret envy the benefits which the Phenicians derived from their trade in tin, with some distant but unknown islands, which according to report, abounded in this valuable metal. They had frequently considered it a desirable object to turn this trade to their own advantage; but they had hitherto found two obstacles which it was not in their power to surmount. One of these was, their ignorance of maritime concerns; and the other, their inability to comprehend at what distance, or in what direction the Cassiterides lay. The Punic wars had enabled them to overcome the former of these obstacles; and